O Canada...

Lynn's first real school project is due next week. She is to complete a poster board/display of a country that we chose the first week of school. We have Canada. My husband was unimpressed with the choice of country, however I thought that it'd be a good thing... learning the geographical placement of Canada would make real sense, as last year they just covered the USA/North America. Also, in college I went on a (mission) trip to Toronto, so I have some actual pictures of that section of the country. Part of the project is dressing the class stuffed animal monkey in dress typical of the country. Well... I didn't think that'd be too hard. :) Lynn keeps telling me that I need to "start sewing the monkey's outfit" and "what do they wear in Canada, mommy?" So, we checked some books out of the library and I think Mr. Monkey will wear a white tshirt (which we will hand stitch a red maple leaf onto) and jeans! This passed Lynn's approval, as her school just had red, white & blue day for 9/11. So, dressing in the colors/design of the country's flag made perfect sense to her (hopefully it will to the teacher as well. :) She enjoyed flipping through the books we checked out and has already picked out things she wants to feature on her board... animals made the top of the list... moose, wolves, bears, sled dogs, beluga white whales. She's definitely an animal lover. She even drew a picture of the white whale, so I think we'll just hang that one on part of the display board!
It is such a different feeling knowing that I need to help guide her on this project, but that it needs to be a first grader's work. I jotted down the things that she found interesting as we were flipping through the book, so that is a big thing as well... not steering her towards stuff that I think would be neat to feature, but what she wants to have on there. Giving up a little bit of control and letting my big girl take on responsibility for her social studies project. I don't know who's growing up faster... her or me :)